Chapter 3,Part 1: A Strange Day

 Darwin

Darwin had woken up earlier than he had planned. And probably earlier than he had ever since he got his job.

He started his daily routine; taking a bath, brushing his teeth, and picking his clothes for the day. He settled for a white button up, a brown suit and pants to match, with a yellow tie with green stripes.

Halfway through, Darwin realized that his alarm clock hadn't gone off yet. He checked the time only to find out he had woken up an hour earlier than usual.

He decided to make an unusually complete breakfast in contrast to the heated bagel and coffee he usually had.

He ended up making two sunny-side up eggs with toast and a mug of coffee.

For the last month, he had three cups of coffee in the morning and still felt tired. Today though, he felt more energized than ever. The only time he could remember being this energetic was as a child on Christmas, or as a teen waiting for a new album of his favourite band to come out.

Maybe it's because I finally finished that dream.

As he thought about the dream, he slowly remembered what happened last night. About the alien, Regyan. About the room he was in, and how spacious it felt to simply be a "room". About how all the speculations about aliens were completely false.

His excitement grew every second. He simply sat at his table for five minutes as realization dawned over him. Plate empty, mug half full. He thought about it, over and over again. It still didn't feel quite real. It still felt like nothing but a simple dream. Something with either no meaning or too deep a meaning.

But even that feeling couldn't stop him from thinking up questions for tonight. There was simply too much he wanted to know, even if their civilization wasn't technologically advanced. He could ask them about the way the brain works. After all, they do have that knowledge...

Wait do they? Regyan never mentioned that... But seeing as they use their subconscious to communicate and discover different things I'd say it's safe to assume so.

This wasn't like Darwin. He usually would never make such assumptions without some sort of solid evidence. And even under normal circumstances, he would never act upon those assumptions.

But these aren't normal circumstances. A universal society which is less technologically advanced than us, yet they manga to make contact first... Why did no one write or talk of this before?

Well, in retrospect, I wouldn't go around blabbering about this "dream" either.

He finished the coffee that he poured into a cup he got from one of his students as a thank you gift (Weird kid, that was) then cleaned up and put the dishes in the dishwasher. Put on his shiny black shoes, grabbed his suitcase and headed to work.

The ride to the college was short, a ten-minute ride and since it was relatively early with was close to no traffic. He felt like turning on the radio, but he knew he wouldn't focus on driving if he did, so he refrained from doing so.

Darwin liked driving, it gave him a feeling of freedom.

Slowly the university came into view. A brick building with different coloured stained glass for windows. Originally, it was an old church building which was abandoned and then renovated as part of a city improvement project.

It was now fairly large, four stories high. With large rooms, wide hallways, and a little circular garden in the middle. Offices of four professors at a time, and sometimes including assistants. The area around the main campus was all parking lots. Since the nearest town was only ten minutes away, most students lived there and went to campus by car or bus. Sometimes bikes too.

He parked at the usual spot; under an apple tree's shadow. The parking lot was empty but for some cars.

He walked his way to the accountant's office, the only way in so early in the morning. He entered expecting the same thing he saw every day. The 75-year old accountant Margret. Instead, he saw a far younger woman.

The office was rectangular with four identical polished, black wooden desks paired with black office chairs. All of them had monitors on them and a computer underneath, two of them were riddled with a mess of papers. The third was far more organized. But the fourth was unusual today...

The desk to darwin's left was especially messy and had multiple picture frames with the same three people. A pale woman posing for the picture, a kid the spitting image of his mother, and a tall man, with sweat glossing his dark skin.

Further in front of him was a desk that, at first glance, looked fairly clean. But Darwin knew better. The 60-year-old lady who used that desk was better than Margret at using a computer and was also a hundred times nicer, but she still faced a lot of difficulties. He also knew that the only reason it even resembled being clean was that she was so good at organizing things manually. Two fake Bonsai trees sat on the corners of the desk, with a bunch of stuff behind the chair.

In front of the Bonsai desk, was a desk Darwin knew to always be less messy than the others, as well as organized. Nothing was interesting about it. There were no additions by the user. No stains. No pictures. Not even a calendar. Just a couple of papers left from yesterday. It was so ordinary it felt out of place in this office.

But the desk to his left, which was usually full of cat pictures. Which was usually a hundred times messier than any other in the room because the worker was so old she might have been to the announcement of the first Apple computer. Which usually had a woman in her late 90s, working for one reason or another, staring at Darwin with disgust, had a box on it. Just that, nothing else. No papers, no cat pictures.

Darwin's curiosity got the better of him, and he moved closer to check inside the box.

It didn't have much, a stack of papers, and a couple of picture frames face down. But before he could check the picture frames, someone came in and he quickly took a step backwards.

"I can't believe I forgot to lock the car- Oh," paused the woman who walked to the desk with the box when she finally noticed Darwin," Ummm hi? Can I help you with anything, sir?"

It took Darwin too long to notice what she saw saying. He saw still taking in her appearance. She was shorter than Darwin so he had to look down to see her.

She had golden blond hair with pink highlights that looked as if it could be used as a mirror. Bright white skin that almost reflected the sunlight. Black nail polish to match her pitch black eyes, which Darwin felt he could simply stand there and lose himself in them for hours. She wore black PJ pants, a white shirt, and a jacket she left half zipped up (white with pink on the sleeves and the zipper.)

"Excuse me? Sir?"

"Ah, sorry. I zoned out for a bit."

"That's okay sir, may I help you with anything? It's quite early and I'm new here so I would recommend coming back later when my colleagues are on the job."

"Bit too uptight there dear. Being a little more casual would help you on this job."

"Pardon? Did you just call me dear?" Her hands strayed towards the phone on the desk. Her face showed clear concern.

"Nononono, I'm not trying to flirt or something. I meant as a way to address someone younger."

Her concern turned into confusion."You don't look much older than my age?"

"I think you aren't quite 30, are you?"

"I!!! Will take that as a compliment. I am 32, thank you very much."

"Oh," said Darwin, a little taken back." Well, pardon me then." He just noticed the slightest wrinkles on her face. "Well then, I do think introductions are in order. I am professor Darwin. I work as a math professor here."

"My name is Stephine, I'll be working here as an accountant from now on." She started organizing the table and only replied dryly to anything the professor said.

Apparently, Margret had retired (Earlier than I had expected) and told Stephine about the job because she was looking for one.

"Well," said Darwin, giving up on any form of conversation," I'll probably see you later today, I spend more time than should be here."

And he hed off to prepare for his classes.

Weird guy, this Darwin.

***********************************************************************************************